This invention relates to mail piece processing and more particularly, to processing mail pieces that have a first page that is a different size than any additional second pages. Even more particularly, the invention relates to processing mail pieces with a first page that is a different size than any additional second pages that exceed a certain number of total pages differently from mail pieces that do not exceed a certain number of total pages.
Many businesses, political, and charitable organizations rely on mass mailings to communicate with their constituents or customers. Certain of these mailings, especially those related to billing, may entail large numbers of pages. For example, long-distance telephone service companies and regional telephone companies may produce bills for mailing to their customers that entail numerous pages of detailed information regarding local and long distance phone calls made by the customer. Also, credit card companies which service large accounts, such as corporate accounts, may also generate bills for mailing that have numerous pages detailing various charges on the account. Hospitals may also produce billings to their customers involving numerous pages of detailed billing information.
Producing these bills for mailing on a timely basis is both a necessary and vital business function. In many cases a business""s best customers often receive the largest bills. These customers also typically demand their bills to be of a high quality on cleanly cut paper. Once received by the customer, the bills are often copied and distributed within the company. Producing bills for mailing to these customers in a timely fashion and with high quality is difficult to do. Thus, the best customers for a business often get the poorest service in relation to receiving their bills in a timely fashion because of their large number of pages and the high quality that is required.
Many efforts have been made to assist businesses and organizations having these large mass mailings to be able to gather the data, process the data, and print the data in as fast and accurate and economical a manner as possible.
In some businesses that produce these large mass mailings, and particularly related to billing, the first page of the bill is printed on a different size sheet of paper than the subsequent detailed sheets. The first page often has a tear-off stub portion that the customer returns with their payment for the bill. This type of bill format introduces even more problems in efficiently processing, formatting, printing, and mailing out bills to customers. example, there are mail piece handling machines that are designed to work in conjunction with a printer to automatically fold the printed bill, add inserts, stuff the bill and inserts into an envelope, seal the envelope, and apply the proper postage for mailing. However, most of these machines have a limit as to the number of pages they are able to handle. Typical upper limits on such mail piece handling machines range from between eight to ten pages total. Once this upper bound has been exceeded, then a different process must be used to handle the bills. These bills, which have more pages than the automatic processing system can handle, and are referred to as heavy bills. Normally, processing these heavy bills entails some amount of manual labor in order to match the first cover page of one size with the corresponding second pages of a different size, merging the two together for mailing, and then applying the proper postage. Experience has shown that the more second pages there are in a heavy bill, the more inefficient the whole process becomes.
There is a need in the art to ensure that bills that have a large number of pages are sent to customers on a timely basis through more efficient processing. There is also a need in the art to reduce the amount of manual labor spent in processing bills that have a large number of pages. There is a further need in the art to ensure that bills that have a large number of pages are of a high quality, are printed in less time, and at a reduced cost.
Thus, it is an aspect of the present invention, in mail pieces where the first page of the mail piece is a different size than any second pages of the mail piece, and when the total number of pages in the mail piece is greater than a predetermined upper bound, to process the data stream for the mail piece differently than the data stream for mail pieces that have a total number of pages less than the upper bound.
Yet another aspect of the invention is to split the data stream for a mail piece having total pages greater than a predetermined upper bound into a data stream for the first page and a data stream for the remaining second pages.
Still another aspect of the invention for a mail piece having total pages greater than a predetermined upper bound is to send the data stream for the first page to a printer that will print the first page efficiently, and to send the data stream for the second pages to a different printer that will print the second pages efficiently.
A still further aspect of the invention is to reformat the data stream for the second pages so that the data will be printed correctly on the different printer.
The above and other aspects of the invention are accomplished in an ultra-heavy mail piece processing system that first collects the data to be printed out and then formats the data for printing. A rendering process then determines how the mail piece will be printed. Based on the total number of pages in the mail piece, the system will direct mail pieces having total pages less than or equal to a lower bound to an automated print and mail process. Mail pieces having total pages greater than the lower bound but less than an upper bound are directed to a different print and mail process that requires some manual handling. Mail pieces that have total pages equal to or greater than the upper bound are directed to a third print and mail process.
In this third print and mail process, the data stream, which is the electronic image for each mail piece, is split into a data stream for the first page and a data stream for all the second pages for the mail piece. The initial data formatting is preserved for the data stream for each first page and the data stream for each first page is sent to a printer for printing in a one-up format. The data stream for each set of second pages is reformatted to allow the data stream for each set of second pages to be sent to and printed on a second printer in a two-up format. The second printer prints at a higher speed than the first printer, and utilizes a different post-printing cutting and stacking process. After each of the first pages and each set of second pages are printed, the first pages are manually collated with their corresponding set of second pages forming mail pieces, and each mail piece is then manually packaged up and the proper postage is applied for mailing.